10" f/8 Steady progress 2 Under the night sky.

*

 Having fixed the primary mirror cell in place on the new rails I could collimate the optics with the Cheshire eyepiece. Venus and Mars were already lost to the intervening trees low in the south west. Jupiter was bright but just visible above the eastern hedge but very low. So I moved the mounting with the sack trucks to a point in the garden where I could see Jupiter above the hedge and began observing. 

As expected the planet was soft. Two strong plus one minor belt were continuously visible. With the Galilean moons expanded into tiny, spiky jewels.

I moved onto Orion, again rather low but towards the south east. The M42 nebula was well extended against a jet black sky. One of the advantages of living rurally, with largely unlit roads, is the very dark skies. The Milky Way is often etched clearly against the night sky when it is clear of cloud. Though clear skies are actually quite unusual where I live.

After looking at Orion I moved the telescope to point high overhead and browsed around  the Cassiopeia area. To reach the eyepiece I needed the full height of my builders folding stepladders! I should add an upward extension pole to the stepladder as a handle for extra safety in the dark. Or simply buy a taller and lighter, dedicated stepladder for observing. I find leaning forwards onto stepladders to be very relaxing. It is much less tiring than standing upright on the ground for hours on end. One's feet do not get so cold as when standing about on permafrost or snow.
 

Even with the drive clutches disengaged I found damping was excellent after touching the focuser. Less than a second to settle to perfectly still again. Not bad at all for such a long OTA. The curved secondary spider has a much higher natural frequency which I hope to remove. More details to follow. I still need to add some sights and a finder. So I am presently squinting along the upper edge of whichever spar is convenient. [Or inconvenient with anything more powerful than a long focus 26mm eyepiece! Even that is providing 77x with a 2000mm primary!  

I shall go out again after dinner to see if Jupiter is any sharper.  It wasn't. Not very. The planet was still very low. The secondary had misted over slightly by the time I returned. I managed to remove the dew with the warmth of my hand without actually touching the optical surface. By now the entire telescope was literally dripping with heavy dew. Though the primary was still fine and dry. With sky conditions worsening I packed up for the night. A glanced out of the window at bedtime showed Jupiter was now very high in the south east.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*